Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image encoding/decoding apparatuses and methods, and more specifically, to encoding/decoding apparatuses and methods for eliminating redundancy of view synthesis prediction candidates in a merge mode.
Related Art
As the growing information technology (IT) industry is spreading worldwide high definition (HD) broadcast services, more and more people happen to be used to HD videos and are demanding higher-quality and higher-resolution videos. To live up to such users, a number of related organizations are spurred to develop next-generation imaging devices. Users who are used to HD video quality demand images of higher quality and higher resolution, and to respond to such demand, many organizations are spurring themselves on to develop next-generation imaging devices. Accordingly, images supportive FHD (Full HD) and UHD (Ultra High Definition) are nowadays commonplace, and thus, users can see higher-resolution images.
Users' demand goes further step to 3D effect videos alongside high quality and high definition. Thus, the organizations have developed 3D images to satisfy such demand.
A 3D image requires depth map information as well as true image (texture) information. A 3D image requires much more information as compared with a 2D image. When a 3D image is coded/decoded using an image encoding/decoding apparatus and method for 2D images, insufficient encoding/decoding efficiency may be obtained.